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Tag Archives: Oldhammer

Hello there! A little bit of painting to share with you all today – some troops for my new Eru-Kin project. The Eru-Kin Kickstarter provided a wealth of cool and unusual sculpts to choose from, including a batch of 4 sculpts that form what I look on as ‘core’ tactical troops, (‘Braves’ in the RT Slann background). I’ve got three of each sculpt, and decided to batch paint them one group at a time, (so the next few posts are going to be broadly similar I’m afraid). In the interests of trying to make them look a bit more individual, I have incorporated some of the old RT fluff regarding skin colour & patterning and exotic animal hides – there is some rather extreme colour experimentation along the way… I’ll be honest, there are some colour combos that don’t exactly rock my world, but hey-ho, it’s an army of space-frog-lizard-men things so who am I to judge! I’ve finished the first batch so let’s take a look:

I repeated the grey-blue armour with the odd red panel here & there, as per my test subject last week, but with different skin colours & patterning for each… I suspect that they would’ve looked much better if I had stuck with yellow flesh, (as per the test mini I did last week), but then they would have been practically identical so it’s pros & cons really. I also picked out the loin cloths in different colours & added some exotic animal print patterns – again, a call-back to the RT Slann fluff, (I suspect that the base colour of the cloth might be used to mark out different units as the army grows).

From a sculpting perspective, these guys look much less ‘Predator-esque’ than last week’s test piece… The similarities are there, but I feel like there is a different design ethic going on here… I originally had my test piece pegged in to be the General, but these latest guys are actually far more typical of the range so I may end up changing my mind on that… I suspect that the Predator dude might end up being a sniper/assassin specialist type in the final army, but we’ll worry about that further down the road. Here they are together:

Anyhoo, that’s it for now dudes – short and sweet today, but worry not – there is more to follow 🙂

Happy Monday folks! I’ve managed to get into a bit of a groove this last week, and I’ve started a new RT army project that has been on the back-burner for far too long – the rather magnificent ‘Eru-Kin’ Kickstarter from Diehard miniatures. I’m aiming to get a command squad and two basic troop squads done this side of Christmas, and then get into some fun stuff in the new year, with (hopefully) a playable army on the table in time for BOYL.

Anyway, let’s take a look at what I’ve got so far – he just happens to be the General, and is such a stonking model:

So we kind of have a Slann thing going on here, but clearly this mini is heavily influenced by the Predator, which is kinda neat given that Pred is 30 years old this year, (shit… now I feel old). Man, I absolutely love that film – in fact, I would put it down as one of my all-time favourites, along with Aliens, Terminator (1&2), Blade Runner, Mad Max, Dune and Robocop (original)… My love of science fiction has deep roots – one of my standout memories was a bunch of us in a mate’s bedroom, all huddled around a small portable TV & Betamax player, watching the Predator pick of Arnie’s team one by one in the relentless claustrophobia of the jungle. The sheer impact and visceral thrill of this film totally blew my mind… Heady days my friends, heady days. *sigh*

Anyway, in terms of paining, I took it fairly easy on this guy – muted primaries, the serviceable & cool blue-grey offset by some asymmetrical red armour plates and bright splashes of glossed yellow flesh. I tried for a bone effect on the helmet & weapons, which is nice from a colour balancing perspective, but I need to go back and tidy up the guns. I also took advantage of the ‘foot on rock’ posing of the base mini, and mounted him on a neat little base topper (I got it for free for supporting the new Ghost Archipelago game from Osprey). I’m going to add some vines and stuff to the base at some point, but I want to see how the rest of the army evolves before I commit. The whole colour scheme might look familiar to some of you, because I basically copied the scheme I used on my Colony 87 not-Slann a couple of years ago:

So, there we have it – the humble beginnings of a new army. I feel a strange urge to paint up some Catachans, do some jungle terrain, and shout ‘Get to da chopper!!!’ 🙂

Hello folks, it has been some time, hasn’t it? I’ve been in a real hobby slump of late – no particular reason, but I just haven’t really felt like doing much lately Also I need to apologies to those followers who are not on WordPress – for some bizarre reason I have been unable to post comments outside of WordPress for a couple of weeks, but fear not – I have been looking on with interest!

The fallow period hasn’t been a complete write-off though, I have slowly worked my way through a selection of Skellies over the last several weeks, and I also went through my leadpile in search of inspiration. First up, let’s take a look at my recent painting achievements.

Here we have a bunch of Nightmare Legion skellies, including a couple of musicians, a complete standard bearer, Renzo the champion, and Mordini the hero:

This is kinda cool because a) I now have the complete range of figured from this Regiment of Renown, and b) I can now add this lot to my existing Legion to put together a unit of 40. This is significant in AoS points because that last 10 comes at half price, and as a bonus, this frees up the C17 command section that used to lead them. Here is my updated Legion – note that Renzo is in charge now, but Mordini is not included in the unit:

I’ll get around to accurately reproducing the banner at some point in the future to really put the final gloss on this unit, but next up we have a couple of real randoms. The guy with the crossbow is an unnamed 1984 pre-slotter – he did come with another horned skeleton of the same vintage, but sadly I lost him to lead rot 😦 The two with scythes are not quite as old – the anatomically unlikely one is from the MD8 undead chariot, while the heavily armoured guy is in the ’91 Red catalogue (thanks Hivemind!!):

These guys fit in perfectly with my Cursed Company, taking this unit up to 33ish models:

Next up, I have this lonesome pikeman to show – nothing hugely exciting here, and no idea of his age or range:

He slots in nicely with my Grave Guard unit, as does Mordini and the C17 command section that got released from the Nightmare Legion. Graveguard are pretty damn good in AoS, so I am pleased to see their numbers increasing slowly:

Finally, I painted up a Middlehammer Necromancer – this guy appears in the Black catalogue of 1993:

He’s a bit boss-eyed, but he’ll do 😉 He’ll support my existing ‘mancer in AoS, and is also destined to act as his apprentice in a future Frostgrave campaign:

So, that’s it for now folks – my apologies for being so crap lately, but hopefully I’m over the slump. One of the good things about sorting out the leadpile is that I’ve gotten excited about some of the many projects I have shelved over the years… I am about to start one such project – a whole new army for Rogue Trader! Thanks for bearing with me & stay tuned for more 🙂

Wow… what a weekend… 3 full days of hobby, with at least 30 hours of gaming & socialising – man, I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the weekend! I got to see hundreds of the loveliest miniatures you will ever see, including some rare beauties from the White Dwarfs of my youth, and some of the coolest OldHammer examples from the interweb, but the best bit was getting to meet virtual friends for the first time, re-meeting folks from last year, and getting to know new people for the very first time – including some very notable names from the misty dawn of our hobby. I played WFB 4th ed for the first time, played Mordheim for the first time, did some jousting, raced a jetbike, played Necromunda, and took part in a big multiplayer game of Rogue Trader. I even squeezed in a little game of AoS on the Sunday evening!! So many cool things… here is the complete run-down, (warning -MANY photos!):

Thursday: Picked up Tytus from Luton airport & headed up to Newark. Stopped at Warhammer World on the way for a quick whistle around the exhibition hall. Out for a burger in Newark & crashed a Steampunk cosplay party before getting an early night.

Spent some time looking at the fantastic ‘mega-boards’ in the main marquee, including the superb Helsreach board, (Curtis & Aiden), and the equally stunning Heldenhofen board, (Geoff, Harry & Chris). Each board was so big that several different games could & did take place simultaneously over the weekend – basically giant gaming sand-boxes. Heldenhofen hosted multiple games of Mordheim, BeirBowl, Squig Hopper racing and Giant Slaying, while Helsreach hosted Grox Hearding, Jetbike races, Necromunda and Rogue Trader… that’s just the games I know about, but I’m sure that more went on! Just take a look at these beauties:

I also made sure I had a catch up with the two Tonys – Mr. Yates and Mr. Ackland. I am a particular fan of Tony A’s work – he’s an absolute legend who has contributed so much of the art in RT, WFB, WFRP and RoC. I deeply regretted not making Tony an offer on some of his work last year, so I summoned up the courage to ask if he would consider selling anything this time around, and was lucky enough to get some of the original pieces from the RT bestiary. I am absolutely delighted about this because this is the section of the book that I spent the most time looking at as a kid:

A quick tour of the display cases revealed these treasures from a bygone age:

Then I was lucky enough to be invited to play in a FB/Mordheim campaign to recover the recipe for warpstone infused cheese! The game was created between Davide & Gionathan (from Italy), Tytus (Poland), and Richard from the UK, so I was really just along for the ride. The campaign started with a jousting competition, which my Undead attended while disguised as noble knights (i.e. I don’t have any cavalry & had to borrow some!). Appropriately enough, Gionathan’s gorgeous Bretonian knights took the most honours in the jousting, which brought some benefits to the next game – a 5-way game of WFB 4th edition. Gionathan took one corner of the board with the flower of Bretonian chivalry, while Tytus took another with some good old Empire steel. My undead took up another corner, while Richard’s Sea Elves made a late appearance on the fourth. Davide held the village in the centre with a motley collection of halflings & dwarfs, where each unit of was hoarding some warpstone tainted cheese. The idea was to compete to destroy units & loot them for cheeses. There was also a wizard hidden in the woodlands, (busily messing with the weather), and one half of the recipe for the evil cheese was in the grasp of a hidden halfling cookmaster. There were so many funny moments – the illegal rampage of my zombie dragon, (should’ve run away in the second turn, but we didn’t realise until the fifth or sixth – during which time he devoured a unit of halflings, killed the Empire general & gryphon, ran the Sea Elf sorcerer off the battle field and killed the grey wizard!), the amazing teleporting grey wizard (who stole ALL the cheese before being blasted by the illegal zombie dragon), the cowardly Bretonian general (who ran away, ran back, and then got himself killed in a challenge against a Lich), and the crazy nautical beasts and their handlers on the sea elf side (crabs, lobsters, jellyfish & seahorses instead of dogs!). We ended the game with the Empire clear winners, having used the magic deck to great effect to recover the bulk of the cheese and half of the recipe! Here are some pics:

We continued the campaign over from Friday, this time playing Mordheim on the incredible Heldenhofen board. We were busy searching for Marion Thistlefoot and the other half of the cheesy recipe, and this time Davide joined the search with his Tillian warband. I had one skeleton interrupt a Halfling Hotpot party (?!) & end up frenzied for the rest of the game, while another skelly got murdered during another search. On the plus side, I gained a halfling rat catcher along the way, so that was cool 🙂 The recipe turned up after a few turns, so a bloodbath ensued as we all got stuck in to try and retrieve it. Even the city watch got involved in the mayhem (with the legend that is Garth taking the role of lawman very seriously indeed!). In the end, the undead prevailed, with the high wound count of my general Richter Kreugar, and Gregor the undead ogre keeping them in the game to the bitter end, (though they were both were down to 1 wound each!) Again, many funny moments, with the Bretonians running away lots again, and the Tillians & Empire troops drawing the ire of the city watch on several occasions. Here are a couple of shots, (though I didn’t take as many as I should’ve done):

After Morheim, I quickly headed over to Helsreach for a spot of jetbike racing – much hilarity ensued as we crashed & bashed our way around a brutal figure of eight course. My bike failed to cross the finish line after gracefully testing the surface tension of concrete 🙂

I then joined in with a bit of Necromunda but failed to get any good pics. I think the tiredness had really kicked in by this point, and my brain wasn’t really working very well.

Sunday:

Sunday was a bit of a wind-down day, and I was lucky enough to enjoy a nice casual game of RT with some OldHammer blogging heroes – Jon, JB, Colin, Aiden and Shane, along with Chris & Tom (who probably also have blogs, but I don’t have the deets). The game was roughly ‘goodies’ vs ‘baddies’, with me & Aiden taking Guard, Jon with a squad of Arbites and Chris with a squad of Eldar, while Shane brought Orks, and the others had various pirates, scum and outlaws. This was a distinctly multinational affair as well, with JB (France), Shane (Australia via Thailand), and Chris & Tom (USA). I was lucky enough to face off opposite the Orks, and so had the honour of playing against two of my favourite things on the internet – Shane’s amazing slaver walker, and his superb version of Governor Kulo from the Book of the Astronomican scenario ‘Wolftime’. Getting one of my tanks and a bunch of troops stomped on by the walker was brilliant, and I was almost sad when a crafty Eldar blew it up with a well-placed lascannon shot from the other end of the table, (after many turns of me & Aiden both trying and failing to kill it!). Governor Kulo managed to escape the wreckage, only to be gunned down by a lucky survivor from the earlier stompy rampage. My corner of the table was eventually secured, albeit at great cost, and Aiden and I had just enough firepower remaining between us to contain the pirate scum that were in danger of sweeping the board. Luckily, they didn’t have too much in the way of anti-tank, because I had precious little left in the way of troops!. This loose and easy game had many funny moments, including the ‘baddies’ shooting down a flyer – only for it to crash in their midst & kill 15 or so scum-bags, using Shane’s walker with Giant rules from WFB and going on a stompy rampage, and Aiden doing some ‘on the job’ training on Conversion Beamers – killing one of his own men, and shooting me in the process 🙂

I also got to meet a certain Rick Priestly, the named author of Rogue Trader, and all-round gaming legend. I shamelessly got my copy of RT signed and blagged a photograph, while having a quick chat about how funny it is that vehicle rules seem to have come full circle in 8th ed, (working in basically the same way as they did in RT). There was also an interesting insight regarding the bestiary section of Rogue Trader, with Rick explaining how this was based on existing D&D creatures, and was basically included to boost sales said minis. Apparently, it was way more successful than anticipated, with RT sales outstripping D&D sales at that time. I would have loved to have chatted longer, but we were mid-game by this point and I didn’t want to hold up the table with my fan-boy shenanigans 🙂

All to soon it was time for an hour of goodbyes, and promises of next year. A huge thank you goes out to the Ansell clan for their superb hospitality and generosity, to the visiting dignitaries and hobby legends who so willingly give their time and energy, and to all the amazing people that were involved in running the event, creating the amazing mega-boards, and in devising and running various games. BOYL really is the highlight of the hobby year as far as I am concerned, and it is all thanks to the amazing people involved:

Footnote:

Tytus crashed at my place on Sunday night, and we squeezed in a quick game of AoS… The Empire troops were unfamiliar with this new fighting style and were defeated in the field, but not before a plucky handgunner managed to take down none other than Richter Kreugar with a cheeky dagger blow… As the battle subsided, the heavily injured handgunner noticed a scroll in among the pile of bones that was Richter, and, without understanding why, he stole it before begining the long, painful crawl back to his own lines and safety…

Later, Richter was brought back to shuddering unlife, as per the curse that was placed on him so many centuries ago. He screamed his rage to the stars as he realised that his half of the warpstone cheese recipe had been stolen. With both halves in the hands of the Empire, the fate of whole worlds stood in the balance…

Hi guys, I have a quick bonus post for you today, just a couple of last minute ‘quick wins’ to share before I head off to BOYL. In my last post I mentioned that I would be having a crack at WFB for the very first time – I’m hoping to be up against an Empire army run by Tytus from Gameoftravel. Now, I might be a total WFB noob, but there is one thing I do know about Fantasy, and that is DRAGONS ROCK!!! I have never painted a Dragon before, but recently acquired a Tom Meier Zombie Dragon from way back in the misty mists of 1986… I got her busted neck repaired, and got her sorted over the weekend ready for painting this week. She was an absolute joy to paint – in fact, she practically painted herself to be honest! This is all done with various washes and a bit of technical paint, but no ‘solid’ base colours at all:

She’s quite tricky to photograph, but isn’t she a beauty? I think I may enter her into the BOYL painting competition 🙂

But… that’s not all guys – I also quickly turned out a second kill-team for Necromunda/Shadow War, ready to take on the trials of Helsreach! I got these from a recent Kickstarter by Blind Beggar miniatures – loosely modelled on Marvin from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie, their goofy charm was irresistible 🙂

I’m running them as alternative Necrons, with the Gold Tops being Immortals (with the Appointed squad leader in the middle):

The Black Tops being stealthy Deathmarks:

The Silver Top as a Warrior:

And this lovely lady being a Praetorian (with her mighty Handbag of Covenant!!)

And here is the game-legal 1000 point starting team:

Bloody terrifying, right?! I know they are low on detail and are just a bit of fun really, but I do find them quite sinister… I’ve seen enough Dr. Who to know that cute & helpful robots always turn on you… I reckon my kids are going to love these, and I can see them turning up in all kinds of pulp/sci-fi scenarios, as well as in games of Shadow War.

Anyway, that’s it dudes and dudettes, I’m heading up to Newark tomorrow so I’ll catch you on the flip side with a full run-down of the weekend – I hope I remember to take lots of photos for you!! Peace out 🙂

Greetings fellows, I have some painted stuffs to share with you today – I have been busy preparing for BOYL, which is kicking off in just 4 days’ time!! For those not in the know, Bring Out Your Lead is an annual Oldhammer extravaganza, which is generously hosted over a long weekend by the Ansell clan, (including Bryan, one time MD of GW), at the family owned Wargames Foundry in Newark. It is an amazing weekend where all the older versions of the core GW games, (and later specialist games), get a damn good thrashing, along with a feast of gorgeous minis from that era. If you can make it, then I really do encourage you to come along – you won’t regret it.

Last year I had a great time playing Rogue Trader, (that’s 1st ed 40k to the younglings), including an excellently GMed multiplayer game. This year I aim to be getting involved in various games based on a board modelled on Helsreach – a rough frontier town on Logan’s World, as presented in Rogue Trader. There will be a rolling campaign based on the Necromunda ruleset and a bespoke game of Jet bike racing, so I decided to put together a desert themed force to participate. I will actually be playing them as Guard as per the new Shadow Wars reboot of Necromunda, so this gave me an excellent excuse to paint up some of my all-time favourite Guard miniatures – the Tallarn. Here is my starting 1000 cred team:

Now, this squad is nowhere near my best work – I was against the clock, so I mostly used inks over a Zandri Dust base coat & kept to a very restricted colour scheme, (apart from the freehand on the shoulder pad – my rogue trader’s personal livery). While it is all a bit rough and ready, I actually kind of like the dusty, weathered look on these guys. The flesh tone is a little darker to suit the theme, and I’m also quite pleased with the OSL glow on the two plasma guys.

In terms of fluff, these guys are desert-world mercs – guns for hire, and tough as old boots. This group has been contracted by Rogue Trader Arturo Lamina, (hence the somewhat incongruous use of the Trader’s personal heraldry on the shoulder pads), to go to Helsreach and get stuck in to some potentially profitable shenanigans that the crafty trader has heard about. In my mind, Arturo has forked out on some knocked off Army gear to equip them, and hopefully give them an air of legitimacy that will help them to avoid any ‘imperial interference’. Devana the huntress, from Arturo’s personal retinue has joined the team – ostensibly as a special weapons op, but also to keep the mercs in line on behalf of her boss… any sign of betrayal, and she’ll be behind them to put a bullet in their skulls.

I also have a few more troops prepared to join the squad in future campaigns, (and if the Helsreach game mechanic allows for advancement):

Commissars are also a thing in Shadow War, so I’ve included one of my all-time favourite models to provide a desert-flavoured equivalent, (again, for future games, but also if the Helsreach mechanic allows):

Finally, I wanted a desert themed jet bike to take part in the racing side game, so I did a bit of Toyhammer turned this:

In to this:

No… I wouldn’t want to ride it either…

This was great fun to build, and uses some old Hotwheels thing and an old Imperial Guard medic rider as the main components. The rider got a headswap (for thematic reasons, but also because the original was so messed up), and a quick delve in the bits box provided all the doodabs and gubbins, while the saddle is sculpted in Greenstuff. The kids saw it finished and said it looks like something from Star Wars, so I reckon that is a win 🙂

Here’s the whole expedition force together, ready for the drive up to Newark on Thursday:

So, that’s it for now dudes – I’ll also be taking my Praetorians with me for a bit of RT action, and I am also planning to play one of the early editions of WFB with my Undead. I may get lynched for my heretical round bases, but I’m really excited to give it a go – WFB wasn’t in my local meta where I grew up and I have never played any of the pre-AoS editions, so this is kind of a bucket-list item for me. With that in mind, I’m having a last-minute push to get something ‘new’ painted up for my undead -specifically for BOYL. It’s a little bit special, so fingers crossed I can do it justice & get it finished in time! I’ll keep you posted 🙂